Alcon Entertainment [The Book of Eli] are in final negotiations to secure Film, TV and Ancillary Franchise rights to produce prequels and sequels to Ridley Scott's 1982 cult sci-fi thriller and dystopian classic: Blade Runner. The deal does not include the right to a remake of the original. Warner Bros is already a distributer. "This is a major acquisition for our company, and a personal favorite film for both of us, we never would want to remake it" said Alcon's Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove. "We recognize the responsibility we have to do justice to the memory of the original with any prequel or sequel we produce. We have long-term goals for the franchise, and are exploring multi-platform concepts, not just limiting ourselves to one medium only." Hit the jump to read more.

Despite the deafening uproar from purists I remain objective in this one I am an olive leaf on a tree made out of an candy coated teenage dreams. Blade Runner which is based on the Phillip K. Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is the story of "Replicants" [robots that are indistinguishable from humans] who return illegally to a dystopian Los Angeles, Scott's vision mines neo-noir conventions and also explores religious themes, while Harrison Ford'sRick Deckard hunts down the replicants.

The original film was set in 2019, a year that seemed quite distant in 1982 but is relatively close now. A prequel wouldn't allow for a setting too many years beyond our own. [The producers state that they're not too concerned with that aspect because technology changes quickly and Johnson further states, this would be set in an alternative universe.]